Mt. Maunganui – Auckland – Waiwera, NZ: Adventure Day

During the nights the floodgates opened. It was raining sheets and sheets. I knew we had parked by a lake and felt silly asking Ty but wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to flood. We just don’t get rain like this in Alaska! By the morning it was hit and miss, fine for 10 minutes, then downpour for 5. So the big hike we had planned for Mt. Maunganui, we scrapped. We decided to drive north and go through Auckland. There weren’t any good RV places near the big city.

We also started the day with cake and singing for breakfast. We ran out of time the night before on R’s actual birthday.

Basing our decision off a penguin brochure one of the kids had grabbed at the airport, we decided to try Kelly Tarlton’s SeaLife in Auckland. Looking for some indoor entertainment due to the poor weather. It was PACKED! Everyone else must have had the same plan. It was quite expensive too! Almost $150 for all four of us. It was neat and there were some good exhibits, but I cant say it’s worth the price. The penguin display was fun to see and L loved the sea turtle rescue area. He’s obsessed with sea turtles.

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From there we drove to the nearest Countdown supermarket for groceries. Picked up some ok Chinese food right next door. Then we hightailed it north of Auckland. We made it to the Wenderholm CSC parking area to camp. This is just outside Waiwera. The gates close this parking area, locking you in or out at 7pm. Thankfully we made it by 6:30. We found a stretch of grass to park, in the pitch dark and settled in for the night with celebratory popsicles.